Stars & Ashes
Page 15
“He’s my brother.” She scowled at Nagavi.
“I know this is difficult—”
“Did you lose your family, then discover your brother is alive? What would you do in my place? Yes, sir. No, sir. Is that all I’m allowed to say? Don’t I have any freedom at all?” She blew out a breath, her face reddening, and her eyes sparking in anger.
“Kia, we are your family, too. Rial will protect you, but don’t expect him to be kind. He wasn’t brought up with kindness. In fact, he spent the first three years of his life in a lab being prodded and tested. Few people know how he was born, but his mother was a geneticist from Falaichte, you won’t have heard of it, but she was the lead scientist on a team that was developing a system of advanced nanobots to prevent defective genes being passed on. When the emperor learned about the project, he annexed the planet, and took his mother prisoner. It didn’t take long for him to discover she was testing the nanobots on herself. After that, he erased the research laboratory and eliminated every scientist on her team, their associates and families, and half the planet to make sure nobody had any knowledge of what she’d discovered. A year later, Lord Rial was born, and his mother was dead.”
That explained his fear of implants. “Why are you telling me this? Am I supposed to feel sorry for him?”
“Don’t you have any empathy left for anyone else, lass, or is everything dead but self-interest and revenge?” He walked away.
She watched him leave brooding over the look of disappointment he’d given her. What did he expect of her? She shook her head. Miserable and slaving away in a mine, or miserable and rich and powerful? She snorted. No, she had no sympathy for him.
FROM THE AUTHOR
Thank you very much for reading Stars & Ashes, Book One in the Saoirse Saga. If you enjoyed the story, let your friends know, and please leave a review as they are the best gift you can give a writer and they help others decide if the book is one they’d like to read.
Awakening Defiance, Book Two, is 99c and available from the following digital retailers:
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Medaxa’s Heir, Book Three will be published late August to mid-September.
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Books by Teagan Kearney:
The Kala Trilogy
Healer’s Magic
Vampire’s Bane
Demon’s Nemesis
The Kala Trilogy Box Set
The Adept Solutions Series
Hekate’s Chalice
Sorcerous Deeds
Ancestral Secrets
The Saoirse Saga
Stars & Ashes
Awakening Defiance
Veiled Planet
One Summer in Montmartre
Untender Lives
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